1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to assemblies for holding surface contact cards of portable electronic devices and, more particularly, to a latching assembly for holding a SIM card in a portable electronic device.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
With the development of wireless communication and information processing technologies, portable electronic devices such as mobile phones are now in widespread use. These electronic devices enable consumers to enjoy the convenience of high-tech services anytime and anywhere. Surface contact cards such as subscriber identity module cards (SIM), compact flash cards (CF) and multimedia cards (MMC) having special circuits that are widely used in portable electronic devices to enhance or specialize their functions. For example, a subscriber identity module card (SIM) is placed in a mobile phone to dedicate the mobile phone' functions to the SIM card owner. By changing SIM cards, a single mobile phone can be used by many different SIM card owners as a personal phone.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a typical assembly for holding a SIM card includes a body 42 made of insulating material and a latching structure 44. A receiving groove 420 is defined in the body 42, and a connector 40 including a plurality of contacts is set in the middle of the receiving groove 420. The shape and size of the receiving groove 420 correspond to a SIM card. The latching structure 44 is formed in the body 42, adjacent to the receiving groove 420, and can be moved back and forth along the direction indicated by the arrow shown in FIG. 1.
In use, firstly, the latching structure 44 is moved away from the receiving groove 420, and the SIM card is received in the receiving groove 420. Then, the latching structure 44 is moved adjacent to the receiving groove 420 and located above the receiving groove 420 for latching the SIM card in the receiving groove 420. In the same way, the SIM card can be released by moving the latching structure 44 away from the receiving groove 420.
In the above assembly for holding a SIM card, the latching structure 44 can easily be moved. If a mobile phone employing such an assembly for holding a SIM card drops to ground, a shock can easily force the latching structure 44 to move off the receiving groove 420. As a result, the SIM card will not connect well with the connector 40 or could even be released from the receiving groove 420. Obviously, such a conventional assembly is not a trustworthy way of holding the SIM card steadily in the receiving groove 420.
Therefore, there is a need for a new surface contact card latching assembly, which can hold the surface contact card steadily in a portable electronic device.